Category: United Kingdom

Doctors who oppose morning-after pill on conscience grounds face qualifications bar

Guidelines confirm that doctors and nurses who oppose controversial emergency contraception on ‘moral or religious’ grounds cannot receive key specialist qualifications

The Telegraph

John Bingham

Doctors and nurses who object to providing controversial emergency contraception on moral or religious grounds are being barred from specialist professional qualifications under official guidelines.

They class Roman Catholics and others motivated by pro-life beliefs as “ineligible” for important qualifications provided by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) even if they complete the training programme.

It led to accusations that the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, a branch of the RCOG, is unfairly discriminating against medical staff who act on grounds of conscience. [Full Text]

RCOG faculty bars prolife doctors from receiving its degrees and diplomas

 Dr. Peter Saunders*

Doctors and nurses who have a moral objection to prescribing ‘contraceptives’ which act by killing human embryos are to be barred from receiving diplomas in sexual and reproductive health even if they undertake the necessary training according to new guidelines.

Under new rules issued by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) earlier this year these doctors and nurses are also to be barred from membership of the faculty and from specialty training.

The FSRH is a faculty of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists established on the 26th March 1993 as the Faculty of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care. In 2007 it changed its name to the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare. [Full Text]

 

Scandal of the doctors who were let off after approving abortions for women they’d never even met

67 doctors were identified in an investigation by NHS watchdog
Care Quality Commission said they illegally signed blank abortion forms
But none of them will be brought before a fitness to practise hearing

Daily Mail

Simon Caldwell

Dozens of doctors found to be signing off abortions for women they had never met will not face any disciplinary action, it was revealed yesterday.

The 67 doctors were identified in an investigation by NHS watchdog the Care Quality Commission as having illegally signed blank abortion forms, which should be filled in only once they have a thorough understanding of a woman’s circumstances.

One of the doctors had signed so many blank forms that they were still being used by the abortion clinic four years after he left.

All 67 were referred to the General Medical Council but a Freedom of Information request has now established that none of them will be brought before a fitness to practise hearing, where they could be disciplined, suspended, or struck off.

The GMC has also refused to pass the names to the police, even though the offence can merit a jail sentence. [Full Text]

Assisted suicide bill proposed in Scotland lacks protection of conscience provision

Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill

An assisted suicide bill has been introduced in the Scots Parliament by M.S.P. Margo MacDonald.  The bill proposes that Scotland provide licensed suicide facilitators to (among other things) “provide, before, during and after the act of suicide (or attempted suicide) by the person for whom the facilitator is acting, such practical assistance as the person reasonably requests.”  It appears that the bill does not require physicians to participate directly in suicide, but they are expected to record and endorse declarations and requests for suicide in a patient’s medical record to confirm that they meet the criteria in the bill.  Physicians who oppose assisted suicide might well object to completing the paperwork required to facilitate it.  There is no reference to protection of conscience in the bill, and it is silent as to the means by which suicide is to be achieved.